It's a while since I've written. I've been doing things in the garden with various levels of success and failure, but was also ill with a nasty bug which took two weeks to get over. I was basically going to work and falling asleep as soon as I got home.
We've had a very cold spring too with unsettled weather due to the polar jetstream moving south of it's normal position. The wind has been a problem and long range forecasts are predicting another poor summer due to there being less Arctic ice which in turn affects the path of the jetstream. So we'll have to make the most of whatever good weather comes our way!
Things are definitely behind last spring, I'll try and illustrate this using the Californian lilac blossom:
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| May 2013 |
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| May 2012 |
Even though spring 2012 was not overly warm, the difference this year is notable. There is some blossom coming now on the tree (not clear in the photo) but it is mostly covered in not yet open buds. Perhaps we'll get there in June! I'll upload a picture when it does. Elsewhere, some things that like warmth are struggling after a great start indoors. The tomatoes are one example, while the early potatoes, leeks and peas are doing well considering. The raised bed pictured below has been netted because of cats. I've got loads of photos for this month, here's a few:
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| Early Orla potatoes growing well in the foreground. |
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| More potatoes also growing here is a purple flowering green manure phacelia, will be nice when it flowers. |
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| Salads |
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| At the moment we're harvesting salad leaves, spinach, peas, broccolli leaves/flowers and radishes like this one. |
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| Cucamelon, exciting new plant that grows small melon shaped cucumberish fruits! Looking forwards to those. |
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| An unusual bouquet of broccolli flowers! |
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| Inca berry plant - another new venture - thanks to James Wong. |
The next few months should be the most interesting as more flowers will start to come on the vegetable plants such as courgettes and beans, as well as the dahlias, phacelia, marigolds and asparagus peas and there will be more to harvest. I'll close with apple blossom and some of the flowering border in the back garden and my new wooden bench, which is where I sit when I've done enough. :O)
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| Bleeding heart flowers |
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| Apple blossom (Cox) |
